Re: [tied] Re: Words like Conch: is it PIE?

I wouldn't exclude the possibility that an imported word was secondarily associated with a similar-sounding native root. If shells were used mainly as ornaments, folk etymology may have led to the interpretation of an originally Dravidian word as "something to be hung" in Indo-Aryan terms. This would help to explain the initial palatal.

I agree -- the odds are that an oriental Wanderwort, used by traders, travelled west, reaching Greek and then Latin.

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: naga_ganesan@...

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 7:02 PM

Subject: [tied] Re: Words like Conch: is it PIE?

--- In cybalist@......, "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@......> wrote: > > A possible PIE derivation is from *k^onk- 'hang', an item we have > just discussed (without mentioning shells): *k^onk-h2-o-s 'bangle, > hanging ornament' > 'sea-shell, conch'. To be sure, its limited > geographical distribution is problematic; on the other hand, if it's > an eastern loanword, it must be a very old one, and the borrowing > trajectory remains to be explained (the Greek word, with its initial > k-, can't have been taken directly from Indo-Aryan). > > Piotr > Evidently, Greek konkhos is not a PIE word. In the early Iron age it must have entered Greece from India via the Oriental contacts. Like domestic chicken. In the last mail, I've given the explanation from Dravidian Tamil examples of koGku meaning 'curve, bend, ...' and, Dravidian seem to give birth to both Skt. zaGkha and Gr. konkhos. Triton myth complex along with gorgon-perseus also points in that direction. It'll be interesting to see if Indian sacred chanks are exported to Greece in BCE centuries archaeologically, and also checking Greek records of imports from India will help to ascertain of conches are also exported for example, peacock feathers, pearls from S. India find a mention. Regards, N. Ganesan
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